Admissions to change at Thomas Jefferson High, and others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is simple: FCPS has no obligation to operate a magnet and should not be allowed to do so unless it has a student body representative of the county’s students.

That was true when TJ was majority white, and it is even more true today, when the school is less representative of the county’s population than at any time in its history.

School Board members who allow this to continue should be replaced, just as Ilryong Moon was last year.

So you want to get rid of the best high school in the country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and again I say so what. If mostly early generation asians think accelerating math prep is the ticket to life success go for it

do we stop or complain about white parents from pushing athletics and then complain about the diversity of high school sports teams? nope

and the biggest point is there this giant pool of black and hispanic kids/famililes clamoring for TJ and upset that they aren't going..... ???? answer nope

so once again we have people in search of a problem when there is none.

and side note TJ already pours tons of time and resources into tutoring/mentoring/math prepping across the county with special focus in traditionally URM areas

It is the woke white folks whose children neither made it into TJ nor have athletic talent, and who have slaveowner guilt, who want to tear down the only thing that is still good about fcps. Where is the NAACP or La Raza in all of this? You need to ask yourself why it is whitey who is leading the charge and not the "affected" parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and again I say so what. If mostly early generation asians think accelerating math prep is the ticket to life success go for it

do we stop or complain about white parents from pushing athletics and then complain about the diversity of high school sports teams? nope

and the biggest point is there this giant pool of black and hispanic kids/famililes clamoring for TJ and upset that they aren't going..... ???? answer nope

so once again we have people in search of a problem when there is none.

and side note TJ already pours tons of time and resources into tutoring/mentoring/math prepping across the county with special focus in traditionally URM areas

It is the woke white folks whose children neither made it into TJ nor have athletic talent, and who have slaveowner guilt, who want to tear down the only thing that is still good about fcps. Where is the NAACP or La Raza in all of this? You need to ask yourself why it is whitey who is leading the charge and not the "affected" parties.

I believe the NAACP is involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is simple: FCPS has no obligation to operate a magnet and should not be allowed to do so unless it has a student body representative of the county’s students.

That was true when TJ was majority white, and it is even more true today, when the school is less representative of the county’s population than at any time in its history.

School Board members who allow this to continue should be replaced, just as Ilryong Moon was last year.

So you want to get rid of the best high school in the country?

other than drain resources from elsewhere, what does having the best school in the country accomplish?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is simple: FCPS has no obligation to operate a magnet and should not be allowed to do so unless it has a student body representative of the county’s students.

That was true when TJ was majority white, and it is even more true today, when the school is less representative of the county’s population than at any time in its history.

School Board members who allow this to continue should be replaced, just as Ilryong Moon was last year.

So you want to get rid of the best high school in the country?

other than drain resources from elsewhere, what does having the best school in the country accomplish?

Any high school can be the best in the country when you test out the poors.

[Anonymous]

So people who think that TJ needs to have a different method of admitting students so that the student body is more diverse = Anti TJ? Gotcha.

Or, people appreciate TJ and what it offers and would like to see it include more people who are Black, Hispanic, and more Girls.

I like the idea of the lottery from Middle Schools. Everyone who is qualified, passes the exams and normal review process, is entered into the lottery. A certain number of spots are set aside for each Middle School. Names of qualified candidates are drawn from each Middle School pool. If a Middle School does not have enough qualified students who applied, those slots are placed into a general pool. Anyone who is not selected in their Middle School lottery is entered into the general pool lottery.

This way the kids are all qualified and we remove some of the pressure to pad a resume, which benefits kids from MS with more extra curricular activities or parents who can afford participation in different clubs. Qualification is based on the exams, essays, and letters of recommendation. Maybe more kids at Title 1 schools who are qualified will be more willing to apply because they know that the distribution of seats more evenly distributed.

It might also benefit everyone by decreasing the race to pad the resume for the Middle School kids at the better off Middle Schools. If you have the grades and the tests scores, you have a shot. You don't have to do 5 clubs. That reduced pressure would probably benefit the 11 and 12 year olds in Middle School.

TJ ends up with a more diverse student body and there is still a qualification process that insures that kids are STEM focused/interested and can handle the more rigorous course load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is simple: FCPS has no obligation to operate a magnet and should not be allowed to do so unless it has a student body representative of the county’s students.

That was true when TJ was majority white, and it is even more true today, when the school is less representative of the county’s population than at any time in its history.

School Board members who allow this to continue should be replaced, just as Ilryong Moon was last year.

So you want to get rid of the best high school in the country?

No. Just TJ, in its current form.

[Anonymous]

TJ is a crutch for FCPS to pretend it’s a great system. Pool the top test-takers in MoCo, Westchester, Nassau or Santa Clara County in a single HS and it would leave TJ in the dust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So people who think that TJ needs to have a different method of admitting students so that the student body is more diverse = Anti TJ? Gotcha.

Or, people appreciate TJ and what it offers and would like to see it include more people who are Black, Hispanic, and more Girls.

I like the idea of the lottery from Middle Schools. Everyone who is qualified, passes the exams and normal review process, is entered into the lottery. A certain number of spots are set aside for each Middle School. Names of qualified candidates are drawn from each Middle School pool. If a Middle School does not have enough qualified students who applied, those slots are placed into a general pool. Anyone who is not selected in their Middle School lottery is entered into the general pool lottery.

This way the kids are all qualified and we remove some of the pressure to pad a resume, which benefits kids from MS with more extra curricular activities or parents who can afford participation in different clubs. Qualification is based on the exams, essays, and letters of recommendation. Maybe more kids at Title 1 schools who are qualified will be more willing to apply because they know that the distribution of seats more evenly distributed.

It might also benefit everyone by decreasing the race to pad the resume for the Middle School kids at the better off Middle Schools. If you have the grades and the tests scores, you have a shot. You don't have to do 5 clubs. That reduced pressure would probably benefit the 11 and 12 year olds in Middle School.

TJ ends up with a more diverse student body and there is still a qualification process that insures that kids are STEM focused/interested and can handle the more rigorous course load.

I'm totally on board with something like this as someone from the "other side" with a potential tweak for taking a baseline from each pyramid instead of each middle school because I would suspect you aren't going to have say even 5 people actually qualify from every middle school.

Additionally you could ensure that there is at least one AAP "center/level IV" in each pyramid to build more of a pipeline/preperation for traditionally unrepresented groups

as long as there isn't a SJW outcry if the students attending the school still don't match the demographics of FPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and again I say so what. If mostly early generation asians think accelerating math prep is the ticket to life success go for it

do we stop or complain about white parents from pushing athletics and then complain about the diversity of high school sports teams? nope

and the biggest point is there this giant pool of black and hispanic kids/famililes clamoring for TJ and upset that they aren't going..... ???? answer nope

so once again we have people in search of a problem when there is none.

and side note TJ already pours tons of time and resources into tutoring/mentoring/math prepping across the county with special focus in traditionally URM areas

It is the woke white folks whose children neither made it into TJ nor have athletic talent, and who have slaveowner guilt, who want to tear down the only thing that is still good about fcps. Where is the NAACP or La Raza in all of this? You need to ask yourself why it is whitey who is leading the charge and not the "affected" parties.

I believe the NAACP is involved.

Not as the driving force. More like "it benefits us, so we give the initiative our stamp of approval "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So people who think that TJ needs to have a different method of admitting students so that the student body is more diverse = Anti TJ? Gotcha.

Or, people appreciate TJ and what it offers and would like to see it include more people who are Black, Hispanic, and more Girls.

I like the idea of the lottery from Middle Schools. Everyone who is qualified, passes the exams and normal review process, is entered into the lottery. A certain number of spots are set aside for each Middle School. Names of qualified candidates are drawn from each Middle School pool. If a Middle School does not have enough qualified students who applied, those slots are placed into a general pool. Anyone who is not selected in their Middle School lottery is entered into the general pool lottery.

This way the kids are all qualified and we remove some of the pressure to pad a resume, which benefits kids from MS with more extra curricular activities or parents who can afford participation in different clubs. Qualification is based on the exams, essays, and letters of recommendation. Maybe more kids at Title 1 schools who are qualified will be more willing to apply because they know that the distribution of seats more evenly distributed.

It might also benefit everyone by decreasing the race to pad the resume for the Middle School kids at the better off Middle Schools. If you have the grades and the tests scores, you have a shot. You don't have to do 5 clubs. That reduced pressure would probably benefit the 11 and 12 year olds in Middle School.

TJ ends up with a more diverse student body and there is still a qualification process that insures that kids are STEM focused/interested and can handle the more rigorous course load.

The determined people with money can relocate last minute to the middle schools with less competition. You'll have the same problem. Also, if there is a stigma following AA and Latino students, this lottery system won't erase it. Ideally you always want to give a hand to the ones that need it, and as long as you can prep for the test, you'll need to compensate for a desired group not being able to prep.

The only way is to do a blind lottery, with some minimum qualifications, where the weeding out process doesn't adversely affect any particular group. At that point you lose the integrity of the school, which is not the end of the world.

One thing to keep in mind is all the tax revenue that we have as a country due to the people that move here for the top notch opportunity called TJ. If you remove the allure if TJ, we may lose a lot of eager residents, thus losing tax money. Is the opportunity of TJ bringing in more tax than the lack of it would lose? So is the appeal of RJ paying for its state of the art facility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and again I say so what. If mostly early generation asians think accelerating math prep is the ticket to life success go for it

do we stop or complain about white parents from pushing athletics and then complain about the diversity of high school sports teams? nope

and the biggest point is there this giant pool of black and hispanic kids/famililes clamoring for TJ and upset that they aren't going..... ???? answer nope

so once again we have people in search of a problem when there is none.

and side note TJ already pours tons of time and resources into tutoring/mentoring/math prepping across the county with special focus in traditionally URM areas

It is the woke white folks whose children neither made it into TJ nor have athletic talent, and who have slaveowner guilt, who want to tear down the only thing that is still good about fcps. Where is the NAACP or La Raza in all of this? You need to ask yourself why it is whitey who is leading the charge and not the "affected" parties.

I believe the NAACP is involved.

Not as the driving force. More like "it benefits us, so we give the initiative our stamp of approval "

False. TJ reform is absolutely a priority of the Fairfax NAACP Education Committee.

http://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2020/aug/12/moving-fairfax-county-schools-dismantle-systemic-r/

[Anonymous]

Also: https://www.fairfaxnaacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FFX-NAACP-Ed-Comm-Priorities-2020-21-1.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One thing to keep in mind is all the tax revenue that we have as a country due to the people that move here for the top notch opportunity called TJ. If you remove the allure if TJ, we may lose a lot of eager residents, thus losing tax money. Is the opportunity of TJ bringing in more tax than the lack of it would lose? So is the appeal of RJ paying for its state of the art facility?

how much is that? Can you quantify it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is simple: FCPS has no obligation to operate a magnet and should not be allowed to do so unless it has a student body representative of the county’s students.

That was true when TJ was majority white, and it is even more true today, when the school is less representative of the county’s population than at any time in its history.

School Board members who allow this to continue should be replaced, just as Ilryong Moon was last year.

So you want to get rid of the best high school in the country?

other than drain resources from elsewhere, what does having the best school in the country accomplish?

Any high school can be the best in the country when you test out the poors.

Plenty poor Asians attend.